How Can You Use Political Cartoons as Primary Sources?

Political cartoons appear in newspapers across the country everyday, but they cannot be "read" in the same way as editorials and other articles. If you know how to examine them, however, there is much they can tell you about the world in which they were created. This tutorial will provide you with some basic information which should help you as you learn to "read" non-textual sources. Although it focuses specifically on political cartoons, some of the concepts it examines could be applied to other non-textual sources as well. Warning: This tutorial includes a political cartoon from the late nineteenth century that contains racially insenstive images and ideas.